Word Boom A Boon For Word Nerds

Word Boom ($0.99) by Rocket Tier challenges the long-standing favorite game, Words With Friends. Instead of being a Scrabble-like game, Word Boom is more like Boggle.

Seven letter tiles are available to make different words (generally up to 10). Use the tiles to create words that will fill the required word spots (for example, two three-letter words, two four-letter words, etc.).

You have one minute and 45 seconds to guess as many words as you can. With each second, a fuse burns closer to the inevitable exploding bomb.

Either shaking your iDevice or hitting the shuffle button will rearrange the tiles to help get your brain thinking, and there’s no penalty for it. Hitting the shuffle button worked fine for me, since I was using an iPad, though I imagine shaking wouldn’t be bad for iPhone users.

A bonus is available either through a random selection at the beginning of the round, or as an in-app purchase. Some of the bonuses include: mutlipliers, hints, ways to slow down the clock, or even moving on to the next round regardless of winning or not. My favorite is a crosshair that you can use to shoot out the fuse’s spark.

Just make sure to actually use the bonuses. It took me a couple of games to realize that they don’t activate automatically.

At the end of the game, any blank spaces you left will cycle through the words that would have worked, so it’s at least a learning experience if you pay attention.

However, I could do without the persistent asking if I want to share my end score via Twitter. No … the answer is no! But I guess that won’t do because all of the words have to be at least three letters long.

Multiplayer play is handled through Game Center. If you don’t already have a friend with the game, it can take a couple of minutes to match up with someone. You and your opponent take turns blowing up each other’s words.